Can't get VHO retrofit to light - please help id problem

[johara]

I purchased a VHO retrofit kit from Marine Depot and am having trouble getting it properly installed and wondered if anyone else has any tips. The ballast is an Icecap 440 and comes with a wiring harness that just plugs in. The 3 piece German endcaps are different from others I've seen in that the end piece has two grooves the lamp pins slip straight into, so the lamp does not rotate to "click in". It is thus somewhat difficult to hold the endpiece in place while screwing in the other two pieces of the endcap without allowing the pins to slip out. After many tries and some extra hands to assist I have them in as well as I can, but still the lamps do not light. I do not know if they are still not sitting 100% correctly or if there is another problem.

I have double checked the wiring and the connections and all seems to be correct. I do not yet have the endcaps mounted into the canopy as I wanted to make sure all was working first. I don't know if that would make any difference. I am also assuming that the two blue wires from the ballast harness are interchangeable, as are the two red and yellow as I don't see anything on the wiring diagram to help me distinguish between the two wires of the same color and there are no instructions sent with the kit.

If anyone has done this installation recently and has any suggestions I would be very appreciative!

 

[Timothy01]

isn't there a wiring diagram that came with your balast if you can scan it and post it it would be eaiser to help with your problem. is if infact it is the wiring, check your bulb 1) do you have the right type bulb 2) is it burt out or broken. the red and yello wires from you ballast should be the live wires and the blues should be the grounds

 

[johara]

No printed wiring diagram came with it. They referred me to this webpage. I am using the two fluorescent bulb wiring scheme.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_fluorescent_icecap_430_ballast.asp?CartId=

The bulbs are right, they came with the kit, and are brand new. I don't know how to sort out whether the problem is the ballast, the endcaps, incorrect seating of the endcaps, a defective bulb, or incorrect wiring.

 

[Timothy01]

{edit} how many feet of bulb are you running

 

[Highlander]

This might help

http://www.icecapinc.com/trshoot.htm

Check out the continuity test link.

 

[johara]

Timothy - here's the link to the kit. As I said, it's VHO, not MH.

Highlander - Thanks for that link - I'll go try and find my ohm meter and try it.

 

[Timothy01]

ya i misread i was reading nother post about mh just before and got lost i guess, but the amount of feet you are running can make a diffrence but i would deffintly check the connections if your not running more then 2 bulbs 12 ft total( bassed on your tank size and the ballast power) you shouldnt have a problem with the ballast being too weak. as for the link you said 440 so i though it was a diffrent ballast my bad

 

[johara]

My mistake - it is 430 running 2 60" bulbs.

I am not sure how to interpret the continuity test. I get a similar reading on all three pairs (blue, red, and yellow) but I don't understand what the reading means. The meter has many settings, I'm not sure which to use.

 

[Timothy01]

thats only 10 feet of bulb take the connections off and try again

 

[Highlander]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7012193#post7012193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johara
My mistake - it is 430 running 2 60" bulbs.

I am not sure how to interpret the continuity test. I get a similar reading on all three pairs (blue, red, and yellow) but I don't understand what the reading means. The meter has many settings, I'm not sure which to use.

With no bulbs fitted , check continuity from plug to end caps on each wire.

With the bulbs fitted, you should read continuity across common colors from the plug.

Use the 20kohm setting on your meter.

 

[johara]

I read the continuity across common colors and the needle maxed out for all of them set at XK ohm and x10ohm, the only two ohm settings I see. The other settings are DCV, ACV and DC mA. I don't know whether that is good or bad since I don't understand what I'm checking. Resistance right? But what does high or low resistance mean? An electrician I am not!

 

[danbone]

Did you add the jumper wire? It's the little gray in the picture http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_fluorescent_icecap_430_ballast.asp?CartId=. You will not have a gray wire though. It's an 18g wire just like the rest. Simply snip off a pice from one of the other wires and use it for the gray (jumper) wire.

 

[Fast Fred]

My first impulse here is to suggest that the bulbs are not properly seated in the end caps. It sounds like you had considerable trouble with them. I would check to make sure they are making contact within the sockets the way the are supposed to.

 

[Highlander]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7019123#post7019123 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johara
I read the continuity across common colors and the needle maxed out for all of them set at XK ohm and x10ohm, the only two ohm settings I see. The other settings are DCV, ACV and DC mA. I don't know whether that is good or bad since I don't understand what I'm checking. Resistance right? But what does high or low resistance mean? An electrician I am not!

Use the XK setting on the meter.
Touch the probes together, this shows the reading for continuity with no resistance.
It should show the same when you test from red to red , etc on the plug, when you have the bulbs connected, if everything is making contact correctly and the bulbs are good.

 

[johara]

Thanks for the responses! I did cut a piece off to use as a jumper wire. I will check again tonight on the continuity - the more specific info will be very helpful!

 

[scbadiver]

Your problem seems clear to me. You stated "the bulbs don't turn to lock in place". I have the same set up and mine do turn(?) Either way but, when mine didn't work initially I found as Fast Fred stated, they are not installed in the endcaps properly. After reseating then and tighteningthe caps all has been good eve since. I'd suggest starting there before going too much further in your testing.

 

[johara]

I finally was able to borrow a friend's Icecap 430 ballast. The lights fired up just fine when I swapped out ballasts, so I guess the wiring and endcap placement was fine after all. I'll call MD about replacing the defective ballast. Thanks for everyone's input!

 

[dtaranath]

I had the same thing happen to my VHO. It ended up being a bad ballast as well. I was going crazy re-wiring the endcaps in every permutation, because only one light would fire.

They sent me a new ballast, which also ended up being bad. Third time was a charm though. Keep that in mind if the second ballast doesn't work either. I got mine from Hellolights, and they were had the best customer service of any company I have ever dealt with.

 

[johara]

I chose an Icecap ballast because they seemed to have such good reliability. Sounds like that may not be so true, at least initially. I'll keep my fingers crossed I won't have to go for a third try!